Inspiration: The Dining Room

Well, now that some paper work has been signed and we are in escrow (Jared is calling inspectors today) I feel like I can FINALLY start thinking more seriously about the decor of our first home.  I wish I had photos, but I don’t yet.  I’m going totally off of what I can remember.  I’m excited to finally start making some plans and I am currently so inspired by the idea that we will actually have a dining room, so I think I will start there.

The dining room is in between the entry and the kitchen, which is not an eat-in kitchen, so the formal dining room will be where we have all of our meals (besides the studio, office and living room).  One side has a window or two and the other is a walkway to the kitchen.  It is a nice size, but every inch will need to be maximized.

(Photos of Lisi & Alex’s home courtesy of Design*Sponge)

We are really loving the idea of a built in bench on one wall.  We don’t have a sideboard and really won’t be moving furniture around in (how many ways can you put a long table in a long room?) and it has the cozy, casual feeling we prefer for a dining room.  This one from Design*Sponge is perfect!  It is a simple shape, something we could DIY or hire a family member to build and doesn’t dominate the room.  We don’t have kids yet (though that was obviously not a concern of these people, as evident by the toys in the room) so a cushion and pillows would suit us quite nicely.

Unfortunately, at one time the hose was an office, so most of the rooms have florescent lighting (yuck).  Luckily, that’s a pretty easy fix.  Lighting can be expensive though and it’s hard to find things in our taste at local big box stores.  Before a movie this month we were browsing Lowes and found this pendant for $34.97!  Well within our price range and perfect for our rustic/vintage/contemporary style!  We are planning on one or two for the dining room.

(Black Dining Room courtesy of Skona Hem via Trendey and White Dining Room from the cover of Simply Scandinavian by Magnus Englund)

Now the color is where I am very torn between two polar opposites.  I love white.  It’s clean, soft and very Scandinavian.  It looks great with everything and it’s just very practical.  However, something about this soft black room is really tugging at my heartstrings.  I would never go with a hard, jet black or anything shiny.  But a matte chalkboard black can be such a statement without being stuck with a ‘color’.  Plus it looks great with wood (which we will install if the floors under the carpet are yucky).  Feel free to weigh in on this one.

These are pieces we currently have.  A BJÖRKUDDEN dining table, NORDMYRA chairs and DINERA plates in gray-blue.  We also recently picked up a jute rug on clearance at Home Depot that is very similar to this one from Potterybarn.  We will be using all of these while we hunt for a new dining table and chairs (preferably vintage or antique).  The goal is to find a table that is larger to host my ever-growing collection of vintage chairs.  I love the rug and it will be sticking around.  And the plates are wonderful.  We have a lot of miscellaneous serving items as well and I don’t need them all to “match” the dining room by any means.

So that’s where I am so far.  A lot of it is still in the air.  I’m dying to tear the carpet up and get a look at what is under there.  Hopefully the wood will be in nice condition, but you never know.